There is a popular phrase that describes something good as “the greatest thing since sliced bread.” Sliced bread in the United States was first made and sold nearly one hundred years ago, but the hot dog originated over five hundred years ago in Frankfurt, Germany.
Sliced-sandwich breads are a mainstay today for popular sandwiches. They are a practical solution for “containerizing” the contents of a sandwich with an edible handheld food item. They also permit holding hot sandwich contents without burning hands and without some other protective device.
There are generally two types of slice-sandwich buns, top-loading buns and side-loading buns. Top-loading buns are preferred for sandwiches that have contents that are likely to spill out if not positioned vertically, such as hot dogs, lobster rolls, and the like. Side-loading buns are preferred especially where toasting the sandwich is desired, such as in a submarine sandwich, a hoagie sandwich, and the like. Toasting a sandwich bun is done in one of two ways. Either the flat surface of the bun is placed in a toaster or grill to toast the outside (crust) of the bun, or the bun is opened and laid flat on the toaster or grill. The former is unsatisfactory because toasting the inside of the bun tastes better than toasting the bun's crust. The latter is unsatisfactory because opening the sandwich bun so that the two portions of the bun lay flat typically damages the bun hinge, causing the bun to fail by coming apart. The technology described herein is directed to improving the way and the result of toasting the inside of sliced-sandwich bread.